THE LOCATION OF VINLAND

Graenlendinga Saga Evidence

Books 3 and 4 of the Graenlendinga Saga leave several clues to the location of Vinland. In Book 3, the country was described as having a very mild winter so that winter fodder was not needed for the livestock. Also, there were plentiful large salmon in the lake and rivers. In addition, the saga noted that "on the shortest day of the year, the sun was already up at 9 a.m. and did not set until after 3 p.m." Book 4 then told of the discovery of vines and grapes by a German member of the crew named Tyrkir.

A literal acceptance of the times in the saga translation implies a latitude between about 50° N and 60° N. Discussion in the MAPHIST e-mail discussion group indicates that the actual Norse terms in the saga are less clear. The terms "eyktarstad" and "dagmalastad" which Magnusson and Palsson translated as 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. may refer to times, or to points on the horizon. The MAPHIST participants did not agree on which was correct.

The mention of salmon and grapes provides further clues. According to Logan in The Vikings in History, "At the present time, salmon are found no further south than 41° N and wild grapes no further north than 42° N. This would place Vinland somewhere between New York City and Boston." Logan also noted that the climate in the eleventh century may have been slightly warmer allowing grapes to grow farther north. In their introduction, Magnusson and Palsson suggest that grapes were found as far north as New Brunswick, but not as far as L'anse Aux Meadows.

We need to remember that the sagas are not historical documents, they were stories based on oral history told for the entertainment of people interested in their past. As such, the mention of Eyktarstad and Dagmalastad may have been inserted by a writer to give interesting detail to his story. Some have argued that a story teller would not know these details unless they came down to him from an someone who had been there. I would contend that this is just the sort of detail a good story teller provides and a sea faring culture such as that of Iceland would be aware that sunrise times change as you move further south.

Archaeological Evidence

The archaeological discovery at L'anse Aux Meadows is the only settlement evidence I am aware of that clearly shows eleventh century Norse presence in North America. According to Logan, Carbon 14 evidence from the site is consistent with occupation around 1000 AD with overlaying Indian or Dorset Eskimo artifacts. One inconsistency between the L'anse Aux Meadows site and the saga story is that pollen analysis contains no evidence that grapes ever grew in the area. It has been suggested that the saga meant wineberries, which could be red or black currents, rather than grapes. The saga story shows no such confusion. Tyrkir insisted that he knew grapes as he was from a grape growing area. Adam of Bremen, writing about 1075 AD also mentioned vines at Vinland. Adam's data was independent of the sagas, but may have come from the same oral tradition.

In their introduction to The Vinland Sagas, Magnusson and Palsson concluded that L'anse Aux Meadows was probably not Vinland and that there may have been other Viking North American settlements unknown to the saga writers. Since there has been only one site identified with the Scandinavian presence in North America both archaeologically and in the sagas and since the archaeological evidence is consistent with much of the saga evidence, it seems reasonable to me to conclude that the site at L'anse Aux Meadows is the remains of the Norse settlement remembered in the sagas and other sources as Vinland. However, the nature of the literary and archaeological evidence is such that we will probably never be certain.

Sources Cited

Adam of Bremen; Gesta Hammaburgensis Ecclesiae Pontificum.

Logan, F D.; The Vikings in History. Routledge. 1991.

Magnusson, M and Paulsson, H, tr.; The Vinland Sagas. Penguin, 1965.

Pickering, Keith; Calculations of sunrise and sunset times and the associated latitudes and MAPHIST discussion notes via e-mail; Nov 30 to Dec 5, 1997.